Writing for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune, humorist James Lileks pulls few punches while lampooning the recent appeals court ruling that Minnesota's 2006 video game law is unconstitutional.

No matter how you view the court decision, it's funny stuff:

...Seeking to keep "Mature" games out of the hands of Impressionable Youth, a law was passed to fine merchants who sell or rent the discs to juveniles. The fine? A crushing $25. I'd say the law was struck down this week, but I don't want the column to get an M rating.

The law was gently overturned.

Noting that 8th Circuit Court Judge Roger Wollman conceded in his decision that the Bible and classic literature like Macbeth contain graphic depictions of violence, Lileks writes:

Anyone who's read "Mack-Daddybeth: Grand Theft Kingdom" knows this. Ridin' around in his horse-drawn whip, whackin' kings. The Bible? It's all about smitin' and fightin' and pilin' up mad stacks of Dead Pharaohs.

Oh, please. The Bible: "A tenth part of their number was cast into the pit, and sore were their hearts and loud their lamentations, so they didst gird their loins anew awaiting the end of the sentence." Game: every piece of processing power is used to show an alien's head removed with a shoulder-mounted rocket...

But, Lileks concedes, the Minnesota law was mainly a political showpiece:

The law probably would have accomplished little anyway, and seems to be based on the undie-bundles people get over a few unrepresentative games. People used to get the vapors over DOOM, which now looks about as violent as ketchup drizzled on Lego blocks...

Do kids have the right to the games? The article about the ruling cited a July 2006 ruling that said "violent video games were protected speech, even for children." Yes, it's right there in Article 3 [of the Constitution]: "Youtfs shall have the righte to Diverse and Sundry pamphlets of Fisticuffery and other forms of boisterous Delighte."...

Not even family-friendly games are safe. I was playing "Roller Coaster Tycoon" with Child the other day, and caught her picking up amusement park patrons and dropping them in the lake. It's not an amusement park game, it's a drowning simulator!